A report by F. Roy, of Statistics Canada's 'current economy analysis' section, was released by Statistics Canada on November 17th. Titled "Social Assistance by Province, 1993-2003", the report states that after the year 2000, BC's "population growth rate was half that of Alberta and Ontario, who held more appeal for immigrants from abroad. At the same time, job growth in British Columbia fell below the Canada average after 2000, after surpassing it in the 1990s." You won't hear that in any of the government's expensive TV ads. Of course, the Campbell Liberals might argue with the report's assertion. Truth, as is often the case with statistics, depends on which years and which beginning and ending months are included in the comparison. Between October 1991 and October 2000, average annual employment growth was 2.3% in BC, 1.7% in Canada. From October 2000 to October 2004, it averaged 1.6% in BC, 1.8% in Canada. Over October 2002 to October 2004, it averaged 2.4% in BC, 1.7% in Canada, but if the comparison is changed to August 2002 to August 2004, BC's average annual employment growth rate falls to 1.6%, 1.7% for Canada. It will take more data to determine whether the last two months indicate a change back to the good times of the 90s for BC.

The report dispels myths the Campbell Liberals have propagated with respect to welfare in the 1990s. As shown in the graph (derived from table 2 in the report), the proportion of British Columbians in receipt of social assistance was below the national average throughout the 90s; however, BC didn't achieve its current status of having the second lowest percentage of people on assistance, next to Alberta, until the cuts made by the Campbell government.